Skills and Employability Network Updates

Asian Decent Work Decade Knowledge Network December 2013, Issue #14

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GLOBAL APPRENTICESHIPS NETWORK (GAN) PROMOTES FUTURE SKILLS FOR BUSINESS AND EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOUTH

There are some 73 million unemployed young people in the world looking

for employment opportunities – yet many employers struggle to find skilled

workers. To address this skills mismatch, the International Organisation of

Employers (IOE) and the OECD’s Business and Industry Advisory Committee

(BIAC), with the support of the ILO, have established a Global

Apprenticeships Network (GAN). The GAN is a business coalition that seeks

to promote apprenticeships and ensure future skills for business. GAN

members are Multinationals (MNCs), Small and Medium-sized companies

(SMEs), employers’ federations, associations and groups linked to vocational training and education.

The GAN:

Offers apprenticeships, learnerships and internships;

Shares best practices with other companies, employers’ federations and labour administrations;

Improves the status of apprenticeship programmes through advocacy campaigns and promotes work-based

training; and

Provides information and capacity building on setting up national and regional networks.

The network members benefit from one-stop package of services, access to industry experience on how to build

apprenticeship programmes, potential to build business to business partnerships, links to talent, as well as

international recognition and visibility. More information on GAN: info@global-apprenticeships.org

The background study on apprenticeship networks, including country summaries of Argentina, India, Germany, South

Africa, Turkey, and the United Kingdom: Feasibility study for a global business network on apprenticeship

NEW RESEARCH LOOKS AT INDUSTRY LEADERSHIP OF HUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT IN MYANMAR

The ILO, with the support of the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation (SDC), has undertaken research to

examine the existing challenges in the labour market of Myanmar as well as to review the skills demand of different

economic sectors. The study analyses the growth patterns of different sectors and the various factors affecting

growth while also discussing various policy options and suggesting recommendations and strategic actions to be

taken.

In October 2013, the ILO and SDC organized a consultation meeting in Yangon in order to get comments on the study

and validate the findings by government institutions, employers and workers organizations, development partners

and stakeholders. The results of the study will be available by early next year.

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ASEAN EMPLOYERS MEET TO DISCUSS SKILLS MATCHING AND MOBILITY

Skills and competences have become crucial for competing in the global knowledge economy and the ASEAN region is

no exception to this. The mobility of professionals in the region is expected to greatly increase when the ASEAN

Economic Community’s Blueprint for the free flow of skilled labour come into effect. While it will bring along new

opportunities for employers, it is without its challenges such as dealing with possible brain drain and temporary

movements of low-skilled or semi-skilled workers.

To support employers’ organizations in responding to

issues related to skilled labour mobility, the ILO orga-

nized a regional workshop for employers in Bali

(Indonesia) in November. The one-day meeting was

arranged under the auspice of the ASEAN TRIANGLE

project. The focus of the meeting was on the role of

the employers in labour migration, and particularly, in

recruiting and placing migrant workers; facilitating

recognition and upgrading of skills and assessing in-

dustry demand for skilled labour.

During the meeting, the participants discussed both

the challenges facing and good practices adopted by

employers related to labour migration. They also iden-

tified specific priority issues requiring employers’

attention and developed policy positions on how to address each issue. The ILO will consolidate these positions into a

comprehensive policy paper on Skills Matching and Mobility which can inform the members before the next regional

meeting.

NEW PROJECT TO IMPROVE SKILLS ASSESSMENT AND CERTIFICATION SYSTEM IN AFGHANISTAN

Beginning in January 2014, a new ILO project will help at least

15,000 students from technical and vocational training schools in

Afghanistan to obtain an internationally recognized skills certificate.

To achieve this, the project will bring the National Occupational Skill

Standards (NOSS) and the associated VET curricula in line with

international standards so that they can be certified by an

assessment body from a country outside Afghanistan. The project

will also improve the assessment system of TVET programmes and,

as part of this, train some 250 assessors in competency-based

assessment and the recognition of prior learning (RPL).

The three-year project is part of the Afghanistan Skills Development

Program II (ASDP II) and it is funded by the World Bank to create and

reform the skills development system. It will be carried out in

collaboration with Afghanistan’s Deputy Ministry for Technical

Vocational Education and Training (DMTVET).

TRAINING ON EMPLOYMENT COUNSELLING SERVICES IN VIET NAM

A recent study by the ILO/Japan

Unemployment Insurance project found that

the capacity of the employment services

centers is key to successfully providing an

integrated employment services package.

Thus, to enhance the vocational training and

employment counselling skills of the

employment services (ECS) staff, the Bureau

of Employment, MoLISA with support of the

project, organized training on employment

counselling of 23 employment services

centers throughout the country. The training

took place in Binh Duong in November. ILO

Specialists were the resource persons for the

training.

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VIET NAM REVISES ITS VET LAW, GETS INSPIRATION FROM THE PHILIPPINES The ILO is supporting the Vietnamese government in revising its 2006 Law on Vocational Training to make it more market oriented, flexible and demand-driven. As part this assistance, a group of officials from the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA), the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour (VGCL) and the National Assembly went on a study tour to the Philippines in October to learn from their experiences in developing, drafting and implementing the VET law. The host organization in Manila was the Philippines’ Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) – a government institution providing major direction, policies and programmes on technical vocational education and training. In addition to learning about good practices and lessons from TESDA, the delegation benefitted also from the briefings with the Philippines Legislature, the Federation of Free Workers (FFW) and Employers’ Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) to learn from their experiences. At the end of the study tour, the participants prepared an action plan on how to share their learning from the study tour and made a list of recommendations for modifying the draft VET Law of Viet Nam.

FEATURED RESOURCES My Guide to Employment: For young

people in the Pacific This Guide by the ILO office for Pacific Island countries aims to facilitate young people - new graduates, schoolleavers, out-of-school and unemployed youth - in their job search either in wage employment or in starting their own businesses.

Global national qualifications framework inventory

This Cedefop inventory of NQFs analyses the aims, characteristics and uses of qualifications frameworks. It is accompanied by Global national qualifications framework inventory which presents country case studies on qualifications frameworks.

Surfing the labour market: Job search

skills for young people Based on ILO experiences of implementing youth employment programmes worldwide, this tool provides guidance on how to provide job skills training to young people. More resources on AP-Skills Network

SEASONS’S GREETINGS

AP-SKILLS WISHES YOU ALL

VERY HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR 2014!